Gov. Noem: "Democrats and the media used COVID to promote fear" on Hannity

South Dakota Governor Noem resisted calls to lock down her state and understood the importance of balancing the risk of the virus with the major risks of destroying the livelihoods of poor and working families. And DeSantis and Noem, are they facing impeachment? Nope. Are they facing recalls? Not at all. Joining us now with Reaction, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Governor, I remember interviewing you at the time. I interviewed you a couple of times. One time, you said to me, well, I informed the people in my state and I trust that they will make responsible decisions. You had one meat packing plant break out. You got hot zones like every other state, but you quickly, you know, went in and put all the attention necessary. And it worked for you, just like it worked for Governor DeSantis. Why? Well, I did. I gave my people all the information that I had. I told them I trusted them and gave them personal responsibility to make the best decisions for their families and allowed them to put food on the table, too. Listen, Sean, what Anita Dunn said here confirmed exactly what I've been saying for months, is that the media and Democrats were using this virus to promote fear and a political agenda. They wanted to scare people in order to control them and they did it to push an agenda where really they could take over this country and change what America looks like. So we need to wake up and understand that this was calculated. It was on purpose. What she said confirms what we have thought and and have said out loud for many, many months and it should be alarming to the everyday hard-working Americans who really do love this country. You know, you also touched on in an interview this week the fact that red states that elect fiscally responsible governors that don't have state income taxes or very low state income taxes, that balance their budgets, fund their pensions, that this COVID relief bill is going to be a big bailout and financial transfer of monies from red states to blue states that are not fiscally responsible. I don't think South Dakota and the people of South Dakota or Tennessee or Florida or any red state anywhere in the country should be bailing out New York, New Jersey, Michigan and California. Exactly. This bill is Biden's bailout bill and all of his cronies and friends. It rewards those states that made wrong decisions, shut down their economies, hurt their people and have higher unemployment rates. It should not be formulated the way that it is. It's the wrong decision and it's the wrong policy for this country. I've told Washington DC over and over again, you don't need to give us more money. You need to give us more flexibility and allow us to really uniquely respond to what the needs are in our states. But this bill that Biden's trying to pass right now is a bailout for those bad actors. Those bad actors in California, Illinois, New York and what they have done and it rewards them for the damage and the tragedies that they've caused to occur in their states. You know your state is going to be impacted by the shutdown of the Keystone XL pipeline. They're talking about shutting down the Dakota pipeline. You know this and you hear from Pete Buttigieg and and all these people in the Biden administration. Well we want them to get other high paying union jobs. What high paying union jobs? These are careers that people have very very specific skill set for. What do you think the impact is going to be for these families that are now gotten and will be getting their pink slips and losing high-paying career jobs? We've already seen people lose their jobs. We had people in our state that had expanded their restaurants, their hotels, their gas stations to accommodate all the workers that were here. The pumping stations for this pipeline were already built. The pipe was laid out ready to be installed. Joe Biden canceling that pipeline was the wrong policy, not just on energy. It was the wrong policy on safety for people. It's safer to move this energy through these pipelines than it is today on the roads and on rail. It's also safer for our environment to move it through the pipeline than it is on the roads and railroads like it is today. So you know it was just wrong. I was responding to politics but not the facts behind what this really does for us in this country and the independence that it gives us. And I'm all about supporting a diversified energy portfolio but it should be an American energy portfolio. This is a national security issue. We cannot import our energy or our food from another country because when we do that, that's when they control us. Last question, Governor. A lot of speculation that if Donald Trump didn't run in 2024 that you would consider running and people I know have talked to you about it. Your thoughts? I'm running for re-election in 2022 and I'm really hopeful that the people of South Dakota will give me another four years to serve them. I love this state and I love the people here. I love that state. It's a lot cheaper for me to live there than where I'm living now. I'm probably the dumbest person in the country that's stuck in New York. I'd love to save money and live there. I'll live anywhere that has lower taxes and less regulation. Governor, thank you. And thanks for the good job you did for the people in your state like Governor DeSantis and so many others.